Oculus Go’s days are numbered, however Pico Interactive seems undeterred by Facebook’s move to retire the 3DOF VR headset. Starting today, a new version of its Pico G2 “4K” headset is available; another enterprise-focused iteration set to follow this year.

Originally released in North America in May 2019, the standard G2 “4K” offered enterprise customers a higher resolution screen to Oculus Go’s 2,560 x 1,440 resolution (1,280 x 1,440 per eye) and a greater degree of personalized business support than Facebook was providing through its Oculus Go for Business program at the time. Both headsets only offer 3DOF head tracking, and include a single 3DOF controller.

The company today announced the G2 “4K S” and G2 “4K” Enterprise, something the company says was the result of customer demand for more memory space and improved battery life.

The newly announced Pico G2 “4K S” offers more internal storage than the original, bumping it from 32GB of internal storage to 128GB. A 20% larger battery, Pico says, brings battery life to “roughly 2 to 5 hours” more than the standard headset.

The Enterprise version also includes 128GB of storage and larger battery, however goes one step further with a single integrated 16 MP RGB camera.

Pico G2 “4K” Enterprise | Image courtesy Pico Interactive

The company says the new camera was included after continuous discussions with the team at NuEyes, a company using immersive headsets to help the visually impaired.

Additionally, the G2 “4K” line is said to now come with an easy-to-clean PU material which should make headset sanitization an easier process.

The Pico G2 “4K S” is available starting today for $375, while the G2 “4K Enterprise” will be available in Q3 2020 for $450.

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Just like the standard G2 “4K”, the two new additions are being sold through enterprise channels, meaning only businesses will be able to purchase. Check out the full specs below:

Pico G2 “4K” Line Specs

Image courtesy Pico Interactive
Image courtesy Pico Interactive

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Note: we’ve put “4K” in inverted commas because Pico’s G2 “4K” headsets actually house a single LCD display with 3,840 x 2,160 screen resolution, which when viewed stereoscopically only offers the user at most half of that useable screen real-estate. That’s marketing for you.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Till Eulenspiegel

    Pico should advertise this as VR Porn Viewer – that’s what they are good for.

    • Greyl

      Even then, the Oculus Quest is a better value, since you can use it with a PC for actual VR porn games.

  • Wow dude

    3dof in 2020 no thanks

  • Liam Mulligan

    I’m sorry but what a waste of materials and resources. 3 degrees of certain fail. These devices will be accumulating in a cupboard while the dust mites stare through the lenses and begin to plot against all humanity. I keep saying it, stop catering to these niche sub-categories and focus on the healthiest user base offering real solutions for real and non-marketing and shiny use cases. From a dev perspective, nobody wants 3DOF!. so how will this get any use other then a glorified 360 media player?

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Oh, you’re the expert….. I think Pico knows exactly what they are doing, they have multiple lines and this one is for a completely different target, their Pico Neo is again for yet another target. (and IMHO the Pico Neo 2 seems to have it nailed how to track controllers without the need of a camera, so it even tracks behind the body (although the controller itself lacks functionalities compared to controllers like the Oculus Touch).

      • Liam Mulligan

        I have a neo2 sitting here, and yes i work in this space daily, so i believe i have earned the right to comment much like others here. Dont assume people are idiots. If you disagree, fine but i reserve the right to voice heavy concern for further waste. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f115913a6b955a65f2bf35c977fda90894bd550b1db04bccff86bdb405a13de1.jpg

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Well, as I said Pico Neo is a completely different target then the Pico G2 line, and you seem to work with the target wher 6DOF is important.. The price difference between a G2 or a Pico Neo 2 is substantial, like double if I’m not mistaken (well at least the original G2 which has the same displays as the Pico Neo 2, hmm, actually weird why they haven’t added the displays of the G2 4K to the Pico Neo 2, but it would probably increase the price by at least $100). I would agree with you if the price different was a mere $100, yeah, THAN it probably wouldn’t make sense to also have the 3DOF line.. But again, if you really don’t need 6DOF, $100 per headset and having to buy 10 or 20 headsets or even more, then $100 does make a difference (but maybe not, because what is $1000 on 10 headsets for a business that actually uses them and makes money)..

  • mfx

    Sorry to be party pooper too, but : Pass

    That’s bad study market to think that VR world wants that.

  • 144Hz

    what a waste

  • I read many “3dof is dead” comments. Well, yesterday I was asked another consultancy job for 3dof viewers regarding an application showcasing 360videos and offering little interactions. 3DOF has still its applications

    • Andrew Jakobs

      That’s because there seem to be more non professionals here who don’t have a realistic view on the whole business.. These headsets are meant for simple cheap/fast and easy usage and not really for home usage.. These type of headsets are a lot times bought for ‘touring’ and simple showcasing a larger audience. I know the Oculus Go for instance was used in a beer factory tour for showing the route a bottle of beer takes, from the beginning of the assemblyline when it’s cleaned and washed all the way to the end where it ends up in a box, very entertaing and informative and no need for 6DOF. It was for 10 visitors at a time, which would have been a lot more expensive if they would have gone for a 6DOF headset and for the experience 3DOF was more than enough..

      • Anonmon

        I can obviously only speak for myself, but my first experience with modern VR was with the DK1 at a friends place shortly after he got it. Despite the practically 720p panel it had and the limited software for non-devs to try out, I was thoroughly impressed with all of it, Except the 3DoF. Which shortly into trying it I made a note of at the time that VR absolutely will not ever work without proper spacial tracking. I could not stand the 3DoF limitation that headset had, and genuinely made me feel kinda queasy not being able to move around in space. It was fine if I consciously locked my head in 3D space and only moved it around on a imaginary pole, but the second I let my head move laterally about everything fell apart, and was genuinely uncomfortable to use.
        It was with that experience I absolutely refuse to have/use 3DoF headsets, regard it as not remotely being a viable option, and continue to question how anyone could find it at all acceptable given I have the heartiest of VR legs with no problem being whipped about in VR, but 3DoF throws me for a loop.
        If you’re laying down in a bed watching movies where your head is gonna be stuck in the one position on the pillow, I guess that would work, but that’s an extremely limited use case for a triple digit priced VR device.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Never had any problems with 3DoF (the older headsets like the Forte VFX-1 or later vuzix VR920) (even less than with 6DoF headsets).
          But again, this is not about your personal preference, it’s about the usage for certain applications where 6DoF isn’t necessary.. This isn’t really meant for regular consumers.

          • Anonmon

            If concern for comfort is at all a priority, which it seems to be for a lot of the VR space given how much of it is geared towards having the lowest latency and most accurate translation of real world movement to virtual above all else, to the point that “Stick movement isn’t viable” was a serious line of thought in the early days of modern VR, 3DoF just straight up isn’t and can’t ever be viable. In the same way some people need teleportation, others straight up can’t do 3DoF because of the dissonance this creates.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            Well, in the case of this virtual beerbottle tour and it did have a lot of movement, but nobody had any problems with motion sickness (using the Oculus Go). And we had around 25 people, also the person leading our tour said they never had any complaints about it (I talked about it with him)..

          • James Cobalt

            For short demo stuff, I can get through 3DoF just fine, but if I’m going to be in it for 20 minutes or more, I’m gonna get reaaalllll sick. :-/
            I think 3DoF video can be done in 6DoF headsets in a way that would prevent this. Like, let the viewer get closer to the video instead of moving the video away, and when you do need to move the video away to maintain stereoscopy, do some wireframe stuff to provide a sense of grounding so it looks like the video sphere is moving and not your entire world. The head-locked-universe is what gets to your stomach.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            It was for about 15 minutes.. but as I said, at this moment 6DoF is still much more expensive than 3DoF, and it’s not necessary in certain usages, so why would you want to spend extra cash on something that isn’t needed. As a company you know these headsets won’t be used for more than 2 years (or less if it’s heavy use), so it doesn’t make any sense to spend extra cash on something that isn’t useful for the situation given.. Once the 6DoF headsets get really cheap it will make sense.
            And that’s what a lot of people here seem to forget, they only look at it from their personal perspective without any view on actual business use..
            Just because you think 3DoF video can be done in 6DoF headsets doesn’t make it worth the extra ammount of cash needed to get it to work.
            And what gets to your stomach, is more than just ‘head-locked-universe’, mostly it’s actually bad lenses and adjustments.. Personally never had any motion sickness with my VFX-1 or VR920’s which are only 3DoF, but only started to get motion sickness when I got my DK2..

        • Atul Salgaonkar

          User discomfort (as in dizziness, motion sickness) in VR continues to be widely studied, and is, generally speaking, due to many factors (from session duration to screen resolution to the type of content and users’ posture/furniture). 6DoF and 3D will improve the experience but not essential for most applications. Jason Jerald’s text “The VR Book” is a good starting point for those interested.

    • Sindred

      I was working on a project to help individuals with disabilities migrate into community. Using the Oculus GO and 180/3D recorded footage, but the program requires minimal effort on the staff, so the GO was perfect. Now I have to upgrade to the Quest, but I can’t expect staff to set guardians every time they move to a new room, so I’m having to shut off guardian and tracking, making the Quest into an expensive GO. It was really crappy to kill off the GO.

  • Rob Farthing

    Please just no

  • TechPassion

    3DOF??? Should not happen even. 370-400 USD for such retarded device, turning people away from VR? No, no and no.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    haha, yeah.. With our company we went on a beer factory tour, and they had a demonstration of the life of a bottle from the initial entering the production line to the box, and it used the Go. and for that it was excellent, no real need for 6DoF headset (which would have costed the beercompany a lot more, and they told me that they had to replace these headsets quite a few times. So if they had expensive headsets like the Quest for that, it wouldn’t have been viable to continue the virtual tour (which is part of the physical tour)).

  • Atul Salgaonkar

    At the CES 2020 a few months ago, Panasonic announced their plans to come out with a 3DoF VR headset/HMD : https://uploadvr.com/panasonic-vr-goggles-ces-2020/

  • Carlos Acosta

    I need your Pico G2 4K.
    Thanks.
    casoacosta@gmail.com
    suramérica.